Well, I guess it would depend upon your climate as well as what is available in your region in nurseries, as seeds, etc.

Here in the northern US, we use annuals like pansies and violas, calendula, flowering kale and flowering cabbages, and diascea. Also, garden "mums" ie chrysanthemums are very popular, even though most of the time they won't survive our winters due to subtropical genetics in the breeding of many garden mums. Perennial asters are popular as well. Finally, there are some foliage plants like dusty miller, creeping jennie, tricolor sage, Heuchera.

Also, there are some colorful cool season vegetables -- Swiss Chard 'Bright Lights' (I believe you refer to this plant as Silverbeet) and Purple Emporer Chinese Mustard come to mind.

People use pansies, johnny jump ups, flowering kale, and violas around here to add color to a cool season garden. Might one of them be small enough?

I've never grown nasturtium, but depending on your weather, that might work, too. Unless it gets too big. Ditto for Rainbow Swiss chard.

It will be interesting to see what other people suggest.

Dwarf marigolds might fill the bill. They repel aphids but attract thrips, so you'd need to be aware of that.

Maybe select colored version of some of the veggies you are already growing?

i recently learned that a few snow peas have beautiful purple/pink colored blossoms, you might select one of those the next time. Carouby de Maussane comes to mind as one that is readily available. Bet that would be really pretty with a row of redbor kale.

A few sweet peas interspersed with your edibles might be an option for this year, tall and dwarf varieties are available.

The crimson flowered broad beans reportedly put on quite a show, some posters say they would grow them for the flowers alone.

There is a cross of broccoli and kale here that looks very pretty-Purple Peacock broccoli. If that is not available maybe a purple sprouting broc could add some color.

Mixing a few heads of red cabbage amongst the green would be an easy way to dial up the visual interest. Same technique could be used with the beets~grow a mix of golden, chiogga, bull's blood for contrast.

How cold do you get in the winter?

thanks for you advice. Mauirose - I live in Perth and the winters don't get that cold with minimums of around 7 deg celciius and 18-20 deg C during the day. Pretty mild really.
I have some ruby red chard seeds on their way on mail order and they will definitely add some colour. I've also heard that marigolds can deter pests away from my cabbages.
Again, thanks so much for your help on this one and its great to be part of such an informative forum. Im only a begginer gardner and have just started harvestin my first lot of dwarf bush beans. very tasty.

Adrian

Red Russian Kale is a positively beautiful plant in and of itself and my personal favorite in the greens department. A "stripe" of these plants down the middle of a bed or section adds beautiful bright color to a fall/winter garden. Bright Lights chard is also lovely in tones of red, green, yellow and orange.

Given the temps the OP reports, runner beans is the clear winner, preferably red flower varieties. If it is up a trellis, that makes for a lot of color.

I've scattered cactus flower zinnia seeds in my vegetable beds from time to time. They make an unexpected and welcome bit of color, and a nice cutting flower for the house.

7C is pretty chilly and I should think possibly too cold for runner beans although you've nothing to lose by trying. I'm not sure the French beans will like it that cold at night either. What about different coloured lettuces? Calendula and nasturtiums might be ok but if it ever drops below 0C the nasturtiums will be mush.

My climate is similar to yours and I grow nasturtiums (they come in colors from pale yellow to deep red and several shades of orange), rather, they grow themselves (self sown). Borage is impressive with beautiful blue flowers (edible) and it also self seeds. I let some radishes and arugula go to seed, so they flower in pale yellow, white and a little pink. Some mustards will make blue flowers if you let them go to seed too. Calendulas seed themselves abundantly as well, they are colorful too. I have a bunch or red shiso, also self sown, nice leaf color! And I second the bull's blood beet, tasty purple/red greens and so beautiful! I also find tuscan kale beautiful, even though it is only dark green.

I like to plant a row of zinnias in my vegetable garden. California Giants are my favorites. One packet of seed produces a huge amount of color.

Cosmos also makes a nice display in the vegetable garden.

It seems that calendula, an old fashioned annual is making a comeback. I'm seeing some attractive varieties growing in vegetable gardens.

I'm bored with marigolds. Everyone grows them, thinking they repel pests. Do they really or is that a myth?

Jim

Mauirose - a crimson flowering Broadbean ? Wow, do you know the name and/or a source for the seed ?

Ozzievego. I would second Mauirose's suggestion of Bull's Blood Beets ( grown for their tops )you could also try the varieties of Swiss Chard 'Charlotte' ( deep yellow color ) and 'Bright Lights' ( several colors Maroon, Green, Yellow and Pinkish )

I would also second the suggestion of Nasturtiums, they look great and the blossoms taste similar to radishes when added to salads looks and tastes great, they can also take less water than many types of flowers which is probably a plus in Perth from what I have heard.

If you have a trellis or climbing structure on the south side of your garden you could grow climbing nasturtiums, or Morning Glories ( but 7C may be a bit cold for them if it stays that cold or below 10C for very long. )

Marigolds not only smell bad to rabbits and some other 4 legged pests but their roots deter nematodes that can damage roots ( club root ) in cabbage family plants and others and 1 other flower to try is 4 O'clocks ( Mirabilis ) they can take cooler temps and get their nickname from the approximate time they open their flowers ( although mine seem to be on GMT cuz they always open 5 hours earlier at 11am :-)

Good luck and give us an update on how these things do for you this season.

Other than flowers, there are some lovely colored lettuces as well as "greens" like swiss chard, kale and mustards which come is various colors.

There are also some fabulous ornamental brassicas. They are edible, but are optimaized for color instead of fruit productions.

The link at the bottom has some spectacular pictures of ornamental kale if you'll click on the images. They look like huge roses and are often used in flower beds. It is just as edible as other kales and gorgeous, to boot! The color intensifies as the weather grows cooler.

The other links are "how to grow" them and variety descriptions.

I like to drop a few zinnia and marigold and cosmos seeds in my beds where there might be room for them, varieties that grow large enough to fight for their lives among the tomato, bean, and cucumber vines.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ornamental kale

namfon-
i haven't grown the crimson flowered favas myself but i have seen them offered in the SSE yearbook. i got this hit when i googled but the blurb kind of sounds like it was from last year. Well, you can always ask. If they are out maybe someone on the forum could help you out with some seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Crimson flowered favas at sustainable seeds

I have mixed eggplant and red bell peppers among my other vegetables just for color.

Some kinds of amaranth have edible leaves when young and beautiful foliage and seed fronds when mature.

For early spring color, I interplanted bulbs with greens, and planted lettuces of different colors (red, speckled, etc.). The bulbs were fall planted; the greens are spring transplants.

{{gwi:13772}}

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to revive it because I was thinking of planting freesias around my veggie garden. I just wanted to make sure with the experts here that I wasn't creating trouble for myself by attracting unwanted bugs or creating some other unwanted dynamic. I'm an avid gardener, but I have never grown freesia. Actually, I have never really been into bulbs, except native douglas iris. Recently, I have gotten it into my head that it would be gorgeous to border my raised bed veggie garden with some lovely freesia bulbs to brighten it up, and also because of the lovely fragrance.

Any objections or problems that I'm not aware of? Or do I get an A-OK from the experts? Thank you!

Also... I have gopher wire underneath all my raised beds (and under the areas around them too) so burrowing critters eating the bulbs and feasting on my fruits and veggies isn't too much of a worry.

So with that aside... what do you say? Do freesias get a VIP backstage pass to the veggie garden?

Like Jimster I also plant cosmos & zinnias for color and pollinators. The nice thing about both is that they'll reseed themselves for the next year and if your growing season is long enough they'll reseed themselves twice during the same year.